Volleyball is a very popular sporting activity. Because of the widespread appeal of the game, informal "pickup" games occur at a variety of locales. Pickup games are very common at beaches and in gymnasiums.
A common problem in pickup games is that there is no non-participating scorekeeper. This can lead to many problems. Volleyball has a somewhat complicated method of scoring in which points are only awarded to the serving team. This can mean that many serves can be put into play with no change in the score. Although players are required to announce the score before each serve, confusion can be generated in long rallies or when changing serving teams. In addition to honest mistakes in the actual score of a game, a more scurrilous player may intentionally misstate the score.
Disagreements in the score are a common cause of arguments in pickup games, and can easily lead to arguments and decreased enjoyment of the game. In the worst case, games may be cancelled because of these disagreements.
Because of the expense of having an impartial scorekeeper, that solution is rarely if ever available to the pickup player. Inexpensive score displays are available, but the same problems with confusion of score can arise with these manual devices. It is simply too inconvenient for a player to periodically interrupt the game to update a scoreboard. Similarly, to date there has been no available automated device that has a selling price low enough to make it readily available to the pickup player.